Vietnam seafood exports has finished year of 2016 with positive results, meeting target of US$7.05 billion, up 7.3% compared to 2015, though the fisheries sector experiencing difficulties in raw material sources due to the drought and salinity and the barriers such as anti-dumping tariff in the US market.

The exports of main products are achieving positive growths, in which shrimp exports reached $3.1 billion, pangasius US$1.7 billion. Tuna exports recovered with the highest rate of 12% to nearly US$510 million, cephalopod exports also rose slightly by 2.3% to reach US$439 million.

With proactive and flexible dealing with market barriers, anti-dumping tariff, adaptable with conditions of domestic and international supply - demand, companies on the one hand maintained traditional markets of the USA, EU, Japan, on the other hand they boosted exports of key products of shrimp, pangasius, tuna and cephalopods to the potential markets, especially Chinese market.

Except for Canada and Brazil, exports to other markets in the top 10 major markets, got positive growths, of which exports to Russia increased by strongest rate of 122%, exports to China also had positive growth of nearly 40%.

Exports to the US are expected to be affected by anti-dumping tariff on shrimp and pangasius, but thanks to increased average import price, exports to the US maintained growth of 10% in 2016. However, competitive pressure, anti-dumping tariff and technical barriers will cause exports to the U.S in 2017 difficult to maintain such strong growth of 2016.

Exports to the EU, Japan recovered slightly by 3.7% and 5.9%, and in 2017 it’s expected to continue rising, but will increase with lower levels than 2016.

For more details on Vietnam seafood production and exports in 2016, specific evaluation and forecasts on each import market and seafood product in 2017, please subscribeReport on Vietnam Seafood Exports in 2016 published in February 2017.